


for you, the sun will be shining

by came0utswinging



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Love, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-06-14
Packaged: 2018-04-04 11:02:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4135038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/came0utswinging/pseuds/came0utswinging
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>she'll try her hardest to get his real smile back</p><p> </p><p>Companion piece to "for you, there'll be no more crying"</p>
            </blockquote>





	for you, the sun will be shining

Remus Lupin is thirty five when she first walks (or, rather, _trips_ ) into his life.

It’s on the day of the first meeting of the newly re-formed Order of the Phoenix and, after another round of _constant vigilance!-_ ing from Alastor Moody the man had quietly stepped into the hallway for a breather.

After teaching lovely yet blissfully ignorant (or at least blissfully ignorant until September ’94) children for a year and then becoming somewhat of a recluse alongside Sirius for a year, Remus had almost forgotten what it felt like to be in the company of people that didn’t either pit or detest him.

He is wishing that just one other person other than Sirius would look at him with something other than pity in their eyes when he hears a loud _thud!_ Followed by what he can only call a string of very inventive curses.

Turning, he sees a young woman – quite pretty young woman, he must admit – with shockingly _red_ hair and the hideous troll leg umbrella stand sprawled on the floor.

Trying his hardest not to smile, Remus walks towards the woman and, crouching slightly, offers her a hand. She rolls her eyes to look at him, eyebrows furrowing for a second as if to figure out whether or not he is a threat. After a second he seems to decide that ultimately he isn’t going to jump up ad attack her and takes his hand, allowing him to pull her to her feet.

“Are you okay?” he asks. “It looks like you managed to take quite the fall”

“Yeah, I-“

Before she can finish, however, the curtains to Walburga Black’s painting fly open and the usual shrieking begins.

“ _FILTH! SCUM! HALF-BREEDS, SHIFTERS AND BLOOD TRAITORS IN THE HOUSE OF MY FAMILY THIS IS NO FAMILY OF MINE NO RELATION”_

_“ENOUGH, MOTHER!”_

The second voice is that of Sirius, rushing from the kitchen to yank the curtains closed over his Mother’s portrait before turning on his heel to face the two.

“Aaah, Moony! I was wondering where you had gotten to. In fact I was considering getting the Order together to go on a manhunt for you; if you hadn’t noticed already, this house has a reputation for destroying everything it comes into contact with. Curse of the Blacks I’m afraid. My dearest Dora here knows all about that, though, don’t you?”

“I do, unfortunately” Dora replies, grimacing slightly.

It takes a second for Remus to realise who this woman is; Nymphadora Tonks, Sirius’ first cousin once removed and, along with her Mother Andromeda, Harry and he himself one of the four peple Sirius cared enough about to never stop talking about.

“Dora, you seem to have disappeared from the meeting too” Sirius continues, furrowing his brow in mock confusion. “Were you, perhaps, sneaking out the back for a cigarette? Because I feel if you were that I should definitely make contact with your Mother-“

“You _could_ ” she replies “and I _could_ also tell her that it was in fact watching you chain smoke at the age of five that led me to such a decision…”

“Touche, little cousin. Touche”

Sirius opens his mouth as if to say something else before sweeping his eyes over the two. A small grin tugs at the corners of his mouth as his eyes come to rest back upon Remus’ face.

“I _was_ going to drag the two of you back inside by your collars but I feel as if that would be… _interrupting_ something. Please, carry on” he finished, brushing past the two, sniggering as he waks into the kitchen.

Remus watches the kitchen door swing closed before realising that his hand feels a little warmer than before. Upon looking down he discovers what Sirius seemed to find hilarious; he is, in fact, still holding her hand.

He, Remus Lupin, is holding the hand of a pretty woman.

He, Remus Lupin, is holding the hand of a pretty woman whom just so happens to be related to Sirius.

He, Remus Lupin, the same Remus Lupin who is holding the hand of a pretty woman who just so happens to be related to Sirius, is _never going to hear the end of this._

He looks up to see that Nymphadora has followed his gaze with her own eyes. She looks up at him, the tiniest pink blush across her cheeks before pulling her hand away and laughing nervously.

“Sorry about that. I’m right clumsy, I am. Quite lucky you were there to come to my rescue really. _My hero_ ” she jokes, a slightly teasing smile on her lips.

“Well, they do call me Remus Lupin, her extraordinaire”

The response comes as naturally as if he were talking to a close friend, despite having only met her a few minutes before. As she smiles at him, his lips can’t help but turn up in a mirror of her.

“There” she says suddenly.

“Excuse me?”

“Your smile. It’s real this time. In the meeting earlier people were taking to you and you were smiling at them but it was a fake smile. I am an auror after all, trained to notice such things”

“If that happens to be what they’re teaching upcoming Aurors these days then I am sincerely worries for our future”

She walks past him towards the kitchen door before turning to face him once again.

“Since you don’t smile often, I guess I’m just going to have to try my hardest to get your real smile back, aren’t I?”

Remus stands for a second before coming upon something she had said before; she had been looking at him during the meeting?

It is only after she has gone that he realises that her hair had changed from bright red to pink during their encounter.

X

Its two months before he hears that phrase.

It is the night after the Advance Guard took Harry from the Dursley’s and Sirius is as good as unconscious thanks to the amount of alcohol that he has consumed.

He’s sitting close to her, perhaps a little bit tipsy (which he’ll say is the first time in a good ten years) and they’re talking about anything and everything.

Recently, he has struck up quite the friendship with don’t-call-me-Nymphadora Tonks. Between ensuring that Sirius doesn’t drink himself to death and being paired up on watch together a little too often, the two have been spending a fairly large amount of time in each other’s company.

“Merlin, Sirius has developed a fair habit, hasn’t he?” she says, sipping from her glass.

“He has, although I will say that he never has had the best control over his consumption of alcohol”

He glances at her in his peripheral vision; her nose is crinkled slightly and he can’t help but smile.

“There it is again. Your real smile, not the I’m-a-nice-guy-so-I’m-going-too-smile-even-though-I-don’t-find-you-charming-at-all smile”

Remus laughs at this before turning to look at her fully.

“Whoever said you were charming, Nymphadora?”

“It’s _natural,_ Remus” she drawls, leading him to believe that she herself might have had a little too much.  

“And _dohn’t caaall me Nymphadora”_

She takes another generous sip before declaring. “Weeelll, if you weren’t really smilinn’ then I’m gonna have to try harder next time, aren’t I?”

X

Sirius has been gone for exactly nine days when she kisses him.

It’s been horrible and, if it weren’t for her, he wonders if he would even be here anymore.

She was hurt in the fight too; a broken arm, a broken rib and quite a few large cuts and bruises keeping her in St Mungo’s for a couple of days. All to be expected from Bellatrix, of course, although that doesn’t stop him from being angry of course. Still, anger only eats away at Remus’ insides and does not quell the rising grief from the death of his brother.

The two are standing in the room in Grimmauld place, staring at the old tapestry of the Black family, after another Order of the Phoenix meeting. The house is all but empty and he knows that he should be leaving soon since this place just reminds him of what he has lost but something seems to be keeping him rooted to the spot. The overwhelming need to be alone had led him to this room; he had thought that it would be deserted although upon finding out who was occupying the room, Remus suddenly didn’t feel the need to be alone anymore.

Funnily enough, he didn’t feel quite so alone anymore, either.

“This is me” she says after an extended period of silence, tapping a spot near the bottom of the tapestry under a burn mark with her foot. The spot is completely empty just as her voice had been.

“With all that’s said and done, would you really want it to be you?” he asks.

“No. Yes. I don’t-“ she breaks off and looks at her feet and he sees her for the broken girl she is, the one that always lacked three quarters of a family.  The one that was scorned by the pureblood and taunted by the lower classes; not quite pure enough to be pureblood but far too _Black_ to be anything else.

Maybe her scars are just a little more internal than his.

“No” she finally decides. “No, I don’t want it to be me. No. In decades and decades, this tapestry will still exist and every person on this tree is going to be remembered. For what, though? Chopping heads off of elves and trying to kill their own relatives? At least if I die tomorrow, I’ll know I died on the right side, even if no one will remember my stupid name”

 _You can’t die_ he thinks and, although he manages to stop the words from coming from his mouth, it doesn’t stop him from realising that the pretty girl whose hand he held might just be all he has left.

He also might just be a little bit in love with her.

She sighs and he promises himself that she’ll never find out what he has just admitted to himself.

“I miss Sirius” she says, her voice so tiny that it is swallowed by the massive room.

“I know” he replies and, without really thinking about it, he reaches for her hand.

 _A friendly gesture_ he assures himself.

She looks up and studies him for a moment before closing the different between them. He doesn’t quite know how it happens or who instigates it but before he knows it she is standing on her tiptoes and their lips are pressed together.

Something in his mind tells him to push away but all he seems to be able to do is pull her closer. Not that he wants to admit it, but he’s been imagining this for almost a year now.

She pulls back and rests her forehead against his own. Remus’ eyes are still closed when he apologises.

“I’m sorry” he murmurs, before gently pushing himself away from her and waking out of the door.

“I guess I’ll just have to try harder to get you to smile next time, won’t I?” he hears her ask and, although she tries to keep her voice light, it cracks at the end.

X

The next few months drag on and on. That, however, is to be expected when sleeping in a wolf’s den.

Then, of course, there’s the returning bit. Molly doesn’t like him at the moment, not one bit and, to be honest, he doesn’t really like himself at the moment either. Still, he reassured, himself that heartbreak will lead to a future without him, therefore a future that will be much better for her.

He’s pretty much used all the excuses he can, over and over until they seem ingrained upon his being.

“ _Too poor. Too old. Too dangerous. I’ll only hurt you. I can’t provide for you. You deserve better. So much better. Someone younger and whole”_

Somehow, he’s even able to hold himself together when she asks him for words he cannot say: _“tell me you don’t love me”_

If he says that, she claims, then she will walk from his life for good.

He just can’t seem to choke the words out, can’t lie to her, can’t see her walk away.

Even if seeing her drained of al colour is tearing him to pieces inside.

X

Remus finally tells her he loves her in a damp field a few months after she kisses him.

He doesn’t quite know what it is that makes him allow himself to love her; maybe it’s the death of a wise leader; perhaps her confession in front of the masses; the advice of the people he respects the most; one thing he does know, however, is that he is done.

 _Done_ fighting his feelings because you know what? Why should he let himself be happy? It’s not like he has anything left to lose.

When he finds her she’s leaning against one of the walls of the castle and she won’t look him in the eye.

“I’m sorry” he says.

“You already said that” she replies.

“I-“

“I’m done, Remus. I give up. Dumbledore’s dead and Sirius is dead and… and Bellatrix is alive and there must be something wrong with me and I just _give up_. I guess I’ll see you around maybe”

She turns and walks away.

“Wait”

She carries on walking.

“Please”

She stops.

“I’m  sorry, Nymphadora. I’m sorry for everything I have caused you this year. I’m sorry I can’t be the person you need but apparently I’m the person that you want and I… well, usually, I’m better with words for one thing. You were right. I can’t change who or what I am but I also can’t change the fact that I am in love with you, all of you, completely, utterly and wholly so and, if you still want me-“

Nymphadora Tonks turns, walks back towards him and, once more, kisses him.

“Apparently another side effect of lycanthropy is stupidity”

It’s late, it’s raining, it’s cold, the greatest wizard of all time had just died and yet, against all odds, Remus finds himself laughing.

The next day, of course, he’ll feel the brunt of her anger, that Black temper coming through; he’ll be shouted at, sworn at and raged at.

For now, however, he finds himself smiling against everything.

“At least I got you to smile. I mean, I did try my hardest” she says as the two walk into the nearby village.

That night, in a rented room he’ll probably never see again, he finally makes love to her.

X

Remus Lupin feels somewhat like a child; shaking and scared and excited all at the same time.

Mere weeks ago he’d asked for her hand. Perhaps it was too soon but, on the night that the two finally got to begin their path together, war was promised and he’d never have forgiven himself if he didn’t marry her whilst he still had the chance.

(and, call him old fashioned, but he’d sort of wanted to marry her since the day he met her, if that was possible)

Finally, he gets the chance on a warm summer day with the birds singing and, he might add, no Charlie Weasley in sight.

(After a restless night, she’d told him all about Charlie’s proposition. She also told him that she had left a disillusioned Charlie alone and, she might add, fully clothed. That was done. Over. It had been years ago whether he liked it or not)

Finally, he steps up to her and promises her everything he should have done from day one.

Finally, he takes her hand and says “I do”

And, it might even be necessary to note that he does it all with a smile on his face; a _real_ smile, all thanks to her.


End file.
